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In 1845 when the potato blight hit, the Irish relied heavily on the tuber as they had done in the past. It was their main, and for the majority, only source of food. It was also their means of paying rent. When the potato failed and continued to do so men and women, young and old, died of starvation and disease.

The potato crops had been doing well in1845. It promised to be a good harvest, and already last season’s crops had been sold at the market. The first inklings of a coming disaster was reported from the Isle of Wright, where potatoes had rotted. Then Dublin added it’s woes to the list, but still it was believed to be a local outbreak and so no cause for worry. All over Ireland crops were still doing well. But when it came time to harvest, their hopes were shattered. The potato…

A Reminder of Our Heritage

“Every man, who parrots the cry of ‘stand by the President’ without adding the proviso ‘so far as he serves the Republic’ takes an attitude as essentially unmanly as that of any Stuart royalist who championed the doctrine that the King could do no wrong. No self-respecting and intelligent free man could take such an attitude.”